Identifying Zika's Symptoms: The Easy And Hard Tell-Tale Signs

Zika virus disease spreads to people mainly through the bite by two species of infected mosquitoes and most likely to transmit Zika. Pregnant women are at the greatest risk for complications passing the virus to the fetus. This is widely known to be linked to cases of microcephaly, a congenital condition where babies born with abnormally smaller brains, which is a host of related medical problems and impaired development.

There's currently almost 300 pregnant U.S. women have tested positive for Zika. More and more people want to know the symptoms especially now that the warmer weather has arrived. We all have heard of the Zika virus, but many are still confused about what sort of symptoms when someone has been affected.

This new map of the United States shows exactly where #Zika mosquitos live https://t.co/qtzPIatQjv pic.twitter.com/g4I5l7XEqv

— POPSUGAR Moms (@POPSUGARMoms) June 10, 2016

Identifiable:

According to Global news, the common Zika symptom trends were: a rash and itchy skin were incredibly common, followed by conjunctivitis. They also had muscle pain, headache, arthralgia, or joint pain, and lymphadenopathy, or swelling in the lymph nodes or glands. Some women reported having a fever, while about one in five also had nausea or vomiting.

Hard Tell-Tale Signs:

Unfortunately, the worst symptoms of Zika might often look entirely different. According to the World Health Organization, the virus has similar symptoms to yellow fever and dengue, and can be difficult to diagnose, While Zika is transmitted primarily through a mosquito bite, there is evidence that an infected male can pass the virus through sexual contact.

In February, one U.S. man contracted Zika virus from his six-day vacation in Puerto Rico. It only took three days; it started with a headache, followed by a rash "eruption" covering his hands, palms, and arms, and then all over his body. His eyes were bloodshot, he was lethargic and by Day 3, the patient noted that the eruption was mostly prominent on the knees and feet, he felt "burning pain" on his feet. - Reports Romper.

By Day 4, he felt a searing pain in his wrists, knees and ankle; there's a little itching, no fever, diarrhea, sore throat nor a cough, nausea or vomiting either. By Day 8, the illness had run its course. The patient's blood test detected no virus, but he was positive in urinalysis.